Massachusetts’ education board last week proposed specific high school graduation coursework requirements to replace MCAS scores. But they won't apply to this year's graduating class, leaving it up to local school districts to set their own requirements.

With little input from the state, districts are taking similar yet varied approaches.

Graduation requirements in Massachusetts public schools have historically incorporated both local requirements and a “competency determination” — the statewide standard that MCAS used to measure.

Voters last fall approved Question 2 , which eliminated the use of the MCAS — a set of standardized tests that measure students’ abilities in math, English language arts and sciences — as an "exit exam," or the competency determination for graduation.

Since then, many districts have settled on requiring passing grades in math, English language arts and science classes as the competency determination to graduate high school. The standards are tied to a 10th grade learning level, the same grade level proficiency measured by the MCAS.

Seniors at Frontier Regional School District in Deerfield must pass one course in each of the three content areas — English, geometry and biology — and a U.S. history course.

Other districts, like Cambridge, are using Mass Core , the state-recommended program of study that requires “successful completion” of a number of classes. This coursework will demonstrate competency to earn a diploma, said Jaclyn Piques, director of communications at Cambridge Public Schools.

Somerville approved a proposal that requires students to pass two English courses, two math courses and two science lab courses, which overlaps with existing local standards.

Under Somerville’s new proposal, approved Monday, only a handful of students would be held back from graduating, said Jessica Boston Davis, assistant superintendent of academics in the district.

Boston, Greenfield and Worcester are following suit, except they’ll require only one lab science. These course requirements — two English, two math and one science at a 10th grade learning level — are in line with what the state proposed Tuesday.

The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education specifies which courses will count next year: two years of high school English, algebra and geometry; and in the sciences, either biology, physics, chemistry or a technology course.

Satisfactorily completing coursework means a student should earn full credit “in accordance with the district’s grading policy,” DESE states. For most districts, a passing grade is anything above a D-minus, a benchmark that was questioned during the Greenfield School Committee’s Feb. 12 meeting .

When a member of the school committee asked why a minimum C grade wasn’t the requirement, the assistant superintendent said that it’s in the interest of fairness to current seniors who went into the school year unaware of the new competency determination. He said more than half of Greenfield's graduating students would be adversely affected should they change the requirement to a C.

Some districts are still in the final stages of finalizing graduation requirements for the class of 2025.

LaTonia Monroe Naylor, a school committee member in Springfield, said her district will vote on new requirements in the next two weeks.

“I think most of our kids are probably going to be fine because we’re not really doing anything drastic for this year,” she said.

Not a goodbye to MCAS just yet

Though the MCAS is no longer a statewide graduation requirement, some districts are considering how to best use the test in the future.

All districts must still administer the high school MCAS to collect student data for the state, and participation is still required under state and federal law.

“I think most of our kids are probably going to be fine because we’re not really doing anything drastic for this year."

Frontier Regional School District proposed requiring students take the test in order to graduate, citing reasons such as real world preparedness and higher stakes to take it seriously. But when the district floated an idea for students to plan to pass one of four standardized tests to graduate, community pushback tabled the proposal for the time being, according to the superintendent.

At Pioneer Valley Regional School District in Northfield, all seniors already passed the high school MCAS exams, which will suffice as their competency determination.

Many other districts are also using the test as a sufficient standalone graduation measure for now.

“They've already earned their competency determination because they've already passed the MCAS,” said Dan Bauer, the Danvers superintendent. “Although it's not used as a mechanism for this year, it would certainly satisfy that.”

Sparking new conversations

The passage of Question 2 has left administrators asking new questions, including what a high school diploma should mean for a student in the state.

“I don't think it should just be about checking boxes,” Monroe Naylor said.

School districts have always had their own local requirements beyond proficiency in 10th grade English, math and science. Fulfilling subjects like physical education and health, world language and social studies are also required for students to walk.

“I think keeping those local requirements based on the school and the district are important, and there probably should be some coherence across the state in order to make sure that diplomas from various high schools hold the same weight,” Boston Davis said.

In Springfield, Monroe Naylor hopes her students will one day be required to graduate with certain basics like financial literacy skills, whether it be mandated by the state or her district.

“That's a direction that I hope that they're going to present to us,” she said. “What are some basic fundamentals that we have not been able to focus on because we've been so focused on folks passing the MCAS to graduate?”

The state’s new proposal does not include requirements outside core classes but communicates that students should show “mastery” of skills by successfully completing a final assessment, a capstone or portfolio project or an equivalent measure.

But some superintendents want more specifics.

“It’s still pretty vague, right? What does mastery mean?” said Newton Public Schools Superintendent Ann Nolin. “The state really didn't help us in terms of more clarity there."

The state’s proposed requirements are in a public comment period until April 4, and will go to a final vote before the board on May 20.

This story is part of a partnership between WBUR and the Boston University Department of Journalism.